The Darkness Before Dawn
by Water-Soter
Summary: What makes us who we are? Is it the choices we make or the ones that are made on our behalf? Or is it a series of accidentally circumstances, events that form an eerie web that will lead us to our fated destiny? Look at Profile for updates/current project


**Title: **Into The Fire

**_Date:_**_ 05/19/04_

**Author: **Water-Soter

**Summary:** What makes us who we are? Is it the choices we make or the ones that are made on our behalf? Is it a series of accidentally circumstances, events that form an eerie web that will lead us to our fated destiny? Scott-centered.

**Main Characters/Pairings:  **Christopher, Katherine, Scott and Alex.

**Series: **The Darkness Before Dawn Prologue

**Author's Notes: **This story is my very own What If, so therefore will be considered an AU (Alternative Universe). This had been in the works for about three years and by the time you read it, you'll probably end up wishing that is had stayed that way, lol (laugh out loud), I know I am. The early version of this story sucks, so if you run into it, burn it, torch it, delete it just please don't read that atrocity. This story is mostly movieverse, but does combine aspects of canon and my own twisted madness. It's dark, deals with pretty disturbing stuff. It's a series, so it really doesn't have and end. Only arcs, multi-part episodes. Think of it like a comic! I have a mailing list for anyone who's interested in knowing when I update my story, so if you're interested, please e-mail me at the address below.   

**Feedback: **Absolutely! I'm new at this, so please don't burn me at the stake. Nevertheless I will appreciate any comments or suggestions you have on this story. Please write to me at www.WaterSoteryahoo.com ****

**Disclaimer**: These characters belong to Marvel comics and the almighty Stan Lee. It's free so please don't take the shirt of my back.

**Warning: **this story contains disturbing context, such a gang rape, child rape, home invasion concepts without the home, so if you're easily offended please don't read, otherwise, be afraid, be very afraid . . . hee! ha ha ha ha  (diabolical laugh!) Lol (laugh out loud)!

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Squishy  thoughts          "Yummy"   spoken         **_Whoopee_**     telepathic communication

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It promised to be a beautiful day. Clear skies, temperature below 60 but still warm enough for locals to enjoy a full day of hiking, camping, fishing and anything their minds could conjure. Chris Summers had brought his family into the wilderness for that very reason. The Airforce's veteran test pilot had finally gotten the much requested and _needed_ time off and he had every intention of enjoying his family's company to its fullest.

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Chris looked up from his spot next to the campfire where the fish they had caught that morning simmered, just in time to brace himself for the six-year-old rocket that crashed into his chest.

"Scott, Scott, Scott!" He chuckled as he detached the energetic bundle from his waist, lifting him into his arms. Delighted baby blues peaked from under messy light brown bangs, a shy smile playing on the child's lips.

"Can we go hiking after breakfast, plueze?" Big baby blues widen to impossible proportions and pink lips curled slightly. How could he refuse his boy when he looked at him like that?

"If your mother aggress," The boy pouted, "then yes, we can go."

"If I agree to what?"

Chris turned with a grin, his almond eyes sparkling. "Go hiking after we eat." The groan he got in response only made it grow wider.

"You two aren't going to give me a chance to catch my breath, are you?" Anne Katherine Summers blew golden locks from where they spread obstructively over her eyes. Her lose pony tail barely grabbing the jaw length strands as she shifted the napping burden in her arms. 

"Plueze, mommy?" Scott gave her his best I'm-too-cute-so-you-can't-say-no look. She was doomed and they both knew it.

"Alright, alright, but your father gets to carry your brother." She shifted the two-year-old blonde in her arms again. Alex's tiny thumb was inside his mouth, being was sucked by the young boy. Kate walked purposely toward her husband, kneeling carefully once she was by his side. "Going for charcoal fish this morning?" She muttered in his hear nearly making Chris fall in to the fire himself in his haste to look at the meal.

He cursed under his breath and lowered his eldest son quickly to the ground, hurrying to move the now overly cooked fish from the fire. "I hope you like your food well down." He said sardonically. Eyeing contemptuously the fish as though they were at fault for getting burned.

"Daddy?" His son was looking at the darken fish distastefully, wrinkling his nose at the terrible smell. "We can't eat _that_!"

Chris looked imploringly at his wife but she just gave him an impish smile.

"Don't look at me, his your son."

"They sure looks good." A deep, slurred voice started them. They turned sharply as one and tensed.

A muscular, gruff man was leaning casually against one of the many pines at the edge of their clearing. He looked harmless enough but every military instinct Chris had were screaming him into action, but Scott's small body had pressed tightly against his. The child was shaking terribly and Chris wondered, not for the first time, how someone as young and innocent as Scott could instinctively react to dangerous situations.

"Doncha think, Paul?" Another man stepped out from his left and Chris cursed himself for not bringing his .46. This one was every bit as big and gruff as the other man, but the way he leered at his wife made his stomach clench. He was in a bad position to arm a good defense against two men, crouched down the way he was with his son hindering any possible movement.

Kate got scooted herself closer to him, bringing Alex protectively to her chest.

In a voice that was both calming and authoritative, he muttered to his eldest. "Scott," When he got the brunet's full attention, he continued, "I want you to go with Mommy and Alex and head into the woods and hide, okay?"

Scott's were eyes watered slightly, and his lips were trembling but when he spoke, his voice was steady. "Are we playing hide and go seek?"

Relieved beyond belief, he nodded minutely, "Yes, but you hide until I come and get you understand?"

A diminutive nod was his response and Chris, despite the situation, found himself glowing with fierce pride.

He reached over and pulled the two-year-old blonde to him   The men didn't seem to be bothered by his movement, but then a third voice came out from behind cover. "Ay, Jake, Paul, where the hell did ya go?"

"Ov'r 'ere, Mark."

Shit! The odds weren't in their favor, but the distraction was all they needed.

Kate grabbed Scott's hand and dashed into the woods as Chris made a grab for one of the logs in the fire. But before he could swing it, two strong arms rapped around his chest, effectively trapping both his arms in the hold. He caught glimpse of the two men, Paul and Jake running past him while a third made his way to him. So that made four, shit!

His training taking over, he head-butted the man holding him, using his body to push the unknown assailant away from his body just as the third man, Mark, moved to tackle him. They fell, wrestled on the ground, throwing wild punches and kicks whenever he could, but the man was stronger and his hits were wearing Chris down.

One particular hard hit left Chris seeing spots. His vision tunneled and for a moment, he was afraid he would pass out, but screaming pulled him out of his daze. The two men were now holding him up on his knees and when he turned to look at the source of the scream, he felt his stomach lurch.

The man, Paul had Kate by the hair, an arm around her waist, dragging her into their camping site. The other, Jake, held a hysterical Scott. The man was struggling to hold on to the small boy, but even with the fierce way his son was trashing, the man's grip was unrelenting.

Oh God! Where's Alex? Chris thought and his eyes roamed desperately the entire clearing looking for his youngest child. But he was nowhere in sight. He resisted the urge to demand that he know what had been done to his two-year-old. But if there was a change that he was safe, there was no way in hell that he was going to jeopardize his baby boy.

Chris' attention was drawn back to the scene before him as Kate's screams intensified, What were those bastards going to do to them? Chris mind raced with a multitude of possibilities. None helping to calm his pounding heart.

He struggled with renowned fierceness as he saw on of the men throw his wife roughly on the ground, "You son's of a bitch! Fucking bastards, let them go!" He shouted, knowing in his heart what was coming but a got kick on the stomach, knocked back on the ground. 

"Nah! We can't do that." A voice from above said mockingly, "We're gonna have some fun."

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In the cool Alaskan forest. A lone figure sat by a river, its silvery currents whisking about the long stretch. Little ripples spreading gentle as the current hit smooth rocks and tree trunks and branches. The only sound that broke the peaceful atmosphere was of the running water as a man, in his early thirties, hooked up another fly.

He prepared another line to throw at into the watery stream. Cast the fishing pole back and prepared to launch when a loud scream stopped him in mid-swing. He whipped his head around so hard that he nearly dislodged a vertebra. There were two gunshots, more screaming then one more. A moment of silence broken by another scream, smaller, younger then a loud boom resonated in the air followed by a loud rumbling, then nothing.

The deadly silence that followed chilled the man to his bones.

For a moment he stood stock still without giving way to any coherent thought. Then as quick as lighting he sprang into action, collecting equipment, while his hands trembling so badly that he continuously dropped what he was holding. Everything was dumped carelessly into plastic containers, bags and anything he had could find, and made his way out of the area as fast as his feet could carry, stumbling all the way back to his jeep near an outback road.

Perhaps if he had gone to check out the disturbance, he would have seen a large trail of vapor floating in the air. He would come to a large crater that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. If he had inspected more closely, he would seen a trail of blood on the edge that lead into the woods to what was left of several bodies. If he would have gotten nearer, he would have made out long blonde hair. A naked woman's battered body crushed between two boulders, then a man, brunet with a gapping hole where his head once had been as the only recognizable things among an assortment of limbs and torn organs. After he had wrenched profoundly, he would have heard the sounds of a small child calling out. If he had gone looking for its source, he would have found a two-year-old child clutching desperately another small body. He would have seen an older boy, laying half-naked on the humid ground curled up in a small ball, trembling not only from the cold. He would have seen tentacles of vapor coming from both of the tiny little bodies. Then the brunet's body glow red then blink away into a clear blue then return to his normal state. He would have seen a sheen of red coverer the area and the darker coloring of his surroundings. 

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Tum! Tum! Tum! . . . To be continued!

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**End Notes:  **Okay guys, that was the prologue. This is an unbetad version so please, bare with me. Next chappie: Erik Lenscherr and Charles Xavier find themselves thrown on for a loop when their vacation turns into a rescue and a race against the system to protect a boy that had been severely traumatized. Nuff' said!


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